Paige Rewritten by Erynn Mangum

Book Two in the Paige Alder series sees Paige dealing with interest from two young men while trying to decide if she should take a job at her church as a youth minister. Complicating this is the return of her younger sister, Preslee, who ran away from home years ago to live with her rocker boyfriend.

Although Paige has now managed to learn to say no to people in her life, so that at least she can have decent mealtimes and take time to relax and pray, her life still seems disorganized.

Luke Prestwick, the brother of her best friend Layla, is back in town and determined to restart his relationship with Paige. He strong-arms a lonely Paige into dinner on her birthday and then continues to show up on Saturday mornings bringing breakfast with him, even when Paige seems less than friendly.  Luke has all the trappings of success; a good job, his own apartment, is well dressed and immaculately groomed. Even more amazing, he has come back to the church.

Meanwhile her relationship with Tyler Jennings isn't faring much better. Tyler, whom Paige really likes, seems cautious and approaches their relationship as if Paige is made of glass. This makes Paige doubt whether Tyler is anything more than just a friend. However, as Tyler begins to ask Paige out to dinner and lunch more frequently, Paige begins to wonder about her own feelings towards him. His easy-going nature and quiet confidence are in contrast to Luke's more forward approach.

Added to this is Paige's jealousy over the return of her prodigal sister, Preslee, who has managed to turn her life around, become Christian and is engaged to Wes, the son of a minister and owner of his own realty company. Paige's feelings are understandable given that she was the one left to comfort their parents when Preslee vanished years ago. While Paige obeyed the rules and did what she was supposed to, Preslee went off and made plenty of mistakes and seemingly got rewarded for her disobedience and her rash ways.

I stayed. I was here. I was the one who followed all the rules, heard all the complaints, and dealt with the aftermath of Preslee's behavior. It was me who held Mom the years that Preslees hadn't even bothered to call on Christmas or Mother's Day.

Paige is now being asked to welcome Preslee back into the family, to rejoice at her upcoming marriage and her good fortune. It's a bitter pill for her to swallow despite the fact that she knows it's the right course.

Can Paige find the maturity to sort through her feelings about Preslee, can she discover what she truly feels about Luke and Tyler to choose between them and can she make a decision about whether or not to accept a job offer from Rick? There's plenty of opportunity for growth in Paige Alder's complicated life.

Paige Rewritten is mainly a story about a young woman's struggle towards adult maturity and the ability to take charge of her life. As a result, Mangum has not written a strong female lead character who knows her mind. Instead in this second novel, Paige Adler is presented as a fairly immature twenty-three year old who is somewhat of a pushover which is frustrating for readers. She doesn't seem to have learned much from her experiences in the first novel and hasn't applied it to any other areas of her life.  In the first novel she was a pushover for just about anyone - saying yes to anyone who asked her to do something. In the second novel, she struggles with the three most important relationships in her life, that of Tyler, Luke and Preslee.

Luke, the boy who left her five years ago is back and Paige simply watches as he waltzes into her life every Saturday morning with food, which seems to be the ticket to Paige's heart (and brain). Incapable of setting some firm boundaries from the beginning and telling Luke that they cannot simply pick up their relationship as if nothing happened, that she is interested in someone else, she does very little to discourage his behaviour. Part of this is the result of Paige not having worked through what happened between her and Luke, leaving her deeply conflicted. What Paige eventually discovers about herself is that she needs to forgive Luke, allowing them both to move on.

Luke is smooth, suave and polished on the surface but his actions and words make him seem insincere and creepy, especially in how he moves a few doors down from Paige, begins attending the same church as she does, and shows up unannounced at her apartment door on Saturday mornings. He does what he needs to, in order to attract Paige's attention again and admits as much; "I want you Paige. I want you back in my life. I've changed, I swear I have. I'm back at church, back reading my Bible, back to trying to walking with God." It's evident that Luke wants Paige's forgiveness, in fact, he apologizes to her many times. But Paige is not ready to hear him nor to forgive him. For her the relationship is over, but for Luke, it is not, leading to the shocking twist at the end.

In contrast to Luke, is the patient and kind Tyler, who seems to respect Paige's uncertainty. He's willing to take the time to establish trust and to honour her heart. Maybe he's not too sure yet either, but Tyler's willing to safeguard her heart before he moves too far, too fast.

A great strength of this novel is the theme regarding life in general and the idea that a person can live their life in a righteous way, as Paige has done, but this is no guarantee for happiness or success. Bad things happen to good people and plenty of good things happen to people who have behaved badly. Sometimes this realization can lead to jealousy like what Paige experiences. The difficulty is in working through those feelings and coming to the realization that God has a plan for each of us (even when things don't go according to plan) and that our plan is unique. It takes Paige some time before she realizes that her sister Preslee overcame some bad choices and had to work hard to recover her life. Paige also realizes that although she did not make the mistakes Preslee did, she nurtured pride in her heart that she was a better person than her sister and that this hardened her heart towards her sister.

It's not surprising then that the theme of forgiveness is dominant in Paige Rewritten - hence the title of the novel. Paige has to rethink each of these relationships and how she views these important people in her life.

Readers will either be frustrated by Paige's paralyzing indecision regarding the relationships in her life, or empathize with the difficulty of coping with situations that require forgiveness and new outlook. Paige Rewritten is a novel that provides plenty of food for thought despite the sometimes annoying choices of the lead character.

The final novel in the Paige Adler series, Paige Turned is now available.

Book Details:
Paige Rewritten by Erynn Mangum
Colorado Springs: NavPress   2013
297 pp.

Paige Torn by Erynn Mangum

Author Erynn Mangum, well known for her Maya Davis series, quickly sets the tone of this first novel in the Paige Adler series. Twenty-two year old Paige's best friend Layla Prestwick excitedly announces her engagement to boyfriend, Peter, and immediately draws Paige into helping her plan her fall wedding. But before that event, Layla is also organizing her parent's 25th wedding anniversary party and for that she desperately needs Paige's help. Paige can't turn down her best friend and is quickly drawn into helping her for this event too.

Meanwhile at work, Paige who is a receptionist at a private adoption agency, Lawman Adoption Agency, is busy organizing the agency's fundraising banquet, also to be held in February. Paige has a degree in child learning and development, hopes to take on cases some day, but so far that hasn't happened. Paige finds herself doing whatever it takes to keep the office running smoothly, including transcribing three interviews one night for one of the counselors.

Paige is also very involved in her church, Grace Church in Dallas, attending services and teaching the ninth grade girls youth group. At church she meets twenty five year old newcomer, Tyler Jennings, a computer software specialist, who has volunteered to take over the ninth grade boys group. The pastor of the church, Rick and his wife Natalie are expecting their first child any time now, meaning that Paige will be needed even more. Once Natalie's baby arrives, Paige is asked to fill in even more at the church and even ends up spending a weekend helping Natalie with her new baby.

It soon becomes apparent that Paige's life is off track. Between the demands of her coworkers, her pastor, the kids at the church, and her beloved best friend Layla, Paige can't find the time to eat, shop for groceries, or do her laundry. And she has even more trouble making time to pray. Her inability to say no has put Paige Alder on a treadmill she can't get off. When Tyler begins calling to ask her out, Paige, who finds Tyler very handsome, is almost too busy to accept. But Tyler has a way of making dates with Paige happen, all the while warning her that she needs to slow down and learn to say no to people. Paige is also reluctant to get involved with another guy and is still not completely recovered from her break-up with Luke Prestwick, Layla's older brother. Can Paige get her priorities in order and recognize

Erynn Mangum does a good job of demonstrating how Paige's life quickly becomes too busy and loses it's focus. However, Paige gradually recognizes that there is something amiss with her life. She ends each day looking at her Bible sitting on the nightstand, yet again untouched and thinks "tomorrow". But she seems powerless to change things until friends intervene.

Paige thought that God's plan for her was to spend each and every moment serving him through service to others. But when she reads the story of Jairus and his daughter, she realizes that Jesus was careful to spend the time he had not trying to do everything people wanted of him, but to do what mattered and to make time to pray.This revelation helps Paige begin to bring some order and perspective into her life and to change her behaviour. Instead of micromanaging everything for her friends and coworkers, she begins to try to look realistically at what she ought to be doing.

Against this backdrop is the blossoming relationship between Tyler and Paige and that's the hook which draws readers into this novel and ultimately the next in the series. The author focuses their relationship on the formation of a friendship, which if successful, will perhaps lead to something more. Tyler is respectful and tender towards Paige, and acts as a leader in their friendship. At the same time he encourages Paige to make her needs and views known, thus modelling a healthy friendship for readers. The hanging ending, a total surprise in a rather predictable book and the possibility of a love triangle in the next book will leave readers yearning for more.

Although this novel was placed in our Young Adult section it really is part of a new genre termed "New Adult", which refers to young adults who are at least 18 years of age up to about 25 years of age. Themes in this genre deal with leaving home, sexuality, courtship, marriage, and work, essentially all those areas that new adults who are either off to college or finished their education and now working, must navigate. Mangum's offering will be appreciated by her many fans because it is also Christian fiction, part of publisher Think, an imprint of NavPress the publishing ministry of The Navigators, a Christian organization that encourages personal development. The front of the novel indicates that "some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life".

Book Details:
Paige Torn by Erynn Mangum
Colorado Springs: NAVPRESS     2013
289 pp.